Russian Courts Make Conflicting Rulings on Whether Cryptos are Property
Two Russian courts have made conflicting rulings on whether bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies count as property. In one case, according to the press office Telegram channel for the Saint Petersburg courts, two men were convicted for extorting money from an unnamed cryptocurrency OTC trader. The criminals had pretended to be officers of Russia’s law enforcement and counter-terrorism agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB).
After threatening to beat and torture the victim, they forced it to pay them 5 million rubles (over $70,000) in cash, and transfer 99.7 BTC, some DigiByte, and BitShares to wallets they owned –the BTC alone is worth over $900,000. The victim has been handed back the cash, but the court did not rule the crypto should be transferred back.
Under the Russian Civil Code, per the press release, cryptocurrencies have no legal status and cannot be deemed property for the purposes of such a case. Speaking to CoinDesk Mikhail Uspenskiy, a crypto-savvy lawyer and deputy head of the Chamber of Tax Consultants in Russia, said he believes the decision was a mistake.
Uspenskiy cited various cases in which Russian courts recognized cryptocurrencies as a form of property, including the case of Ilya Tasrkov, who filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and was forced to reveal his crypto holdings so they could be included in his estate.
CoinDesk points out that in June, a package of draft bills was introduced to the country’s parliament suggesting cryptocurrencies could be treated as property. They would, however, also prohibit operations involving crypto using Russia-based infrastructure.
